3D television will not rot your brain or fry your eyeballs

Researchers at Australia’s ARC Vision Centre and the University of Sydney have been looking into the consequences, whatever they might be, of watching 3D movies and television. The short story is that they’re not terribly worried about the new technology.

For people whose eyes are misaligned, which is about 10% of the population, 3D really won’t look 3D, because their brain adjusts to the misalignment by suppressing the input from one eye. The scientists note that there is a slight possibility that some people with this condition, amblyopia, might be helped by presenting each eye with a compensated image on 3D TV – but don’t hold your breath for that to happen.

What about concerns that children who watch lots of 3D TV will have vision problems? “There is no evidence yet that 3D TVs will create problems with vision,” the scientists said. Nonetheless, they are wary of the possible long-term effects of humans regularly adapting to the different visual worlds of 3D TV.